The Galactic War: Rogue Element ~The Beginning

[Shenmue654]

"Are you talking about me or Ossanlin?" states Keshin with a slight roll of his eyes, glancing at Terenia. "This is the first you've spoken in days. If you're talking about Ossanlin, we're not thrilled with the situation either but it has to be done. In my case, you don't get less trusted than being surrounded by people you've shot at least once, but...." Keshin rubs the back of Joanne's head with an awkward look. "....you make do. The Rebellion is wasted at the moment. Reven and many of the other major players are dead, and the rest are pretty messed up. Trusting the Andalites a while gets you needed resources."

"If you mean me..." Keshin gives her a sideways grin. "...too bad. I'm here, a Yeerk, and when healthy pretty good with a Dracon."

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Aetheas takes Claxter's advice-- he fires three shots wildly at the target Bug Fighter. At the distance it's managed to put between them in the last few seconds, his accuracy isn't great, but the third shot connects, leaving a scorch mark across the Bug's hull in the shape of a teardrop. Superficial damage, but enough to spot it by. Satisfied, he yanks the controls to the right, barely barrel-rolling out of the way of a swarm of incoming missiles.

He hits the throttle and rockets away from the core of the battle, the simulated fighter rattling heavily under Dracon impacts. Not following the Bug closely will lose him points, but his instincts, and the quick, cursory calculation he's run in his head, tell him that he can get a higher score by waiting for an opportunity to strike, like Claxter suggested, than by getting blown apart in the battle exploding around them.

He cuts the throttle and maneuvers sideways, as quickly as possible, into a canyon in one of the larger asteroids. In the few seconds of respite he has, the time before the asteroid's rotation again brings him into the main battle, he runs a check on the fighter's damage-- shields are already failing, and one of the engines is running hot. It must be damaged.

<How do the pilots do this?> he asks, turning a stalk eye to Claxter.

[Chad32]

<Honestly I think battles are usually a bit more controlled than this. Pilots are usually trained for heightened reflexes, and doing some things on an almost unconscious level. Not to mention that often there are teams using formations and plans briefed on before the battle. This obstacle course is designed for practice on the former.>

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Aetheas does his best to steady his breathing. <They are not,> he spits, <superAndalite. If those idiots can do this, so can I.> A few seconds later, the asteroid rotates, putting him back in the line of fire. He hits the throttle, rocketing out of the canyon just as a duo of flaming tail-fighters plow into the wall and release a slow-motion rockslide.

He flies erratically in the direction he remembers the target last having been, scanning the space around him with his stalk eyes. Luck is with him, and he spots the target Bug within seconds. Aetheas's fighter shakes violently as he swings around to fly towards it-- he's been hit! Glancing at his display, he can see a second Bug turning to follow him. Aetheas rolls, hard, narrowly avoiding a second Dracon. A second glance at his panel reveals the Bug that had decided to tail him trailing sparks and flame as a Tail-Fighter, in turn, drops in behind it.

<Yeah!> he shouts, then looks around. <No!> It seems he's lost the target Bug yet again.

[Chad32]

<It circled around the asteroid while you were distracted.> Claxter said. Perhaps he wasn't supposed to be directly helping aetheas like that, but he was getting excited and wanted to see him win. <You want to be fast, but watch your system as well to keep from over stressing it too early. Since your engine is practically underneath you, and early warning sign of overheating is when the floor starts to feel warm to your hooves.>

[Terenia]

Efaen nods. <Startup Sequence Alpha,> she echoes, trying to sound more sure of herself than she feels. She watches the holographic ship respond to her command, glancing at Eleric for a sign of approval, that the 'ship' is behaving as it should. With a little reluctance, she spares him a stalk eye, though the expression on her face makes it clear that seeing in all four directions at once makes her uncomfortable.

<What sort of consequences?> she asks after a moment, placing a hand gently on the edge of one of the consoles, her main eyes skimming them, absorbing as much information as possible.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

<Thank you,> Aetheas says, nodding a stalk eye towards Claxter. He immediately regrets taking that portion of his attention off of the battle outside-- he's forced to jerk the controls, hard, to avoid the flaming remains of a Bug Fighter that flies out of the blind spot created by his momentarily-distracted stalk eye.

Heeding Claxter's advice, Aetheas opens the throttle all the way and rockets towards the large asteroid. He attempts to use its gravity to assist his maneuver, but miscalculates slightly, and ends up swinging very wide around the backside of the asteroid-- the target Bug is nearly out of range already when Aetheas spots it. Aetheas cuts the throttle, spins the craft, and fires the engines on full again. His miscalculation means they have to work even harder to cancel his existing momentum, and as he makes his wide turn, the Bug spots him and again rockets away,  around the asteroid and towards the main battle. Aetheas fires a few shots as it speeds away, but they miss entirely, going on to dissipate over a billion miles of space.

Aetheas gains on the Bug quickly, with his engines fully open and his lack of maneuvering. As Claxter warned, he begins to notice a warmth radiating up through his hooves. Aetheas throttles back, now within firing distance of the Bug yet again, and attempts to stay on its tail, flying through the chaotic mess of debris and explosions without even panicking much. He fires repeatedly, but the few shots that do connect are merely glancing blows.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Eleric watches Efaen as the open ****pit comes to life.  He commands the simulation to change slightly, a training fighter materializing around the open ****pit.  The simulation begins to add perfectly-replicated sounds as the hull of the ship materializes around himself and Efaen.  <That was good, you're a natural.>  He grins winningly in response to Efaen starting up the ship.

<It's impossible to say exactly what will fail, save that the likelihood of a critical failure is increased more than ten-fold with a sequence Omega startup.  If nothing fails, you will certainly irreversibly damage components and further increase the chances of failure on the next startup.>  Aetheas pauses for a moment before realizing that he hasn't really elaborated on Efaen's question.  <I suppose, more specifically, containment could fail in your small-fuser.  That would obliterate the fighter and everything around it within a five-meter radius.  Further out, serious damage is still likely with the outbound blast-wave.  One or both of the plasma nacelles could fail.  The explosion would not be nearly so energetic, but it would still render the fighter useless, and possibly kill the pilot in the process.>

He smiles again as Efaen finally uses one of her stalk-eyes properly, and he trots a bit closer.  Not close enough to invade Efaen's personal bubble, but close enough to peer over her shoulder at the control panel.  <Once the fuser has reached an acceptable equilibrium and the engine nacelles have warmed, you can command the ship to lift off.  I would recommend commanding it to undertake an automatic exit trajectory.  Normally you would have to clear activation, lift-off, and egress with hangar command.  Since this is a simulation, we can skip that part.  Once you have us out in "space," you can try using the control sticks.  The left controls linear thrust, the right controls rotational thrust.>

[Chad32]

Aetheas seemed to be doing better, but wasn't able to get a clean shot and finish the bug. <When it dodges a blast directly from behind, try to shoot slightly ahead in the direction it's going so it will fly into the blast. Try to use your shots to cage it in until you can hit his engines and finish it off.>

It was hectic trying to follow the bug and take it down while also being aware of everything else going on around. It was enough to give someone a headache.

[Myitt]

Myitt nods woodenly, sniffling and wiping irritably at the tears on her cheeks.

"Yeah," she breathes. "We do need to meet. On our own terms, with our own goals." She gives Chris a broken smile. "I guess I haven't been that great at this whole 'leading' thing. But we'll get there." She nods, more to encourage herself.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Aetheas begins making an attempt to 'cage' the target with his firing pattern. His accuracy is questionable at best under these circumstances, but it seems to be working reasonably well-- at least he's scoring more hits now.

Finally, one shot connects and one of the target's engines blows clean off the ship, sending the Bug Fighter spinning through the debris field. <Yes!> shouts Aetheas. With renewed confidence, he again ups the throttle, firing repeatedly at the Bug Fighter as it struggles to regain control.

It only takes a few seconds for Aetheas to completely disintegrate the Bug. <Yes!> he yells. As the Bug evaporates, one of the Blade Ships that Aetheas had apparently forgotten to track sideswipes his own fighter. The simulation ends immediately, flashing a message telling Aetheas that his fighter has been destroyed, and that the mission has been failed.

Aetheas groans, but turns to Claxter with a grin in spite of himself. <I did it!>

[Chad32]

<Congratulations! I think we'll count this as a win, despite that last second. Real battles are typically not that chaotic, after all. You did a great job all around, and I'll make sure that goes in my report. I suppose the hour is up, and you're free to do any other tasks you have for your shift. Try not to seclude yourself too much for the rest of the day, ok? That's an order.> Claxter said. He had noticed Aetheas spending a lot of time alone, and felt it was best that he socialized more. He didn't want to force it, though, since socializing is supposed to be fun, so he just said to try not to be a loner.

The Aristh usually ran off as soon as his hour was up, but Claxter didn't hurry along to try to find Varekil, since he didn't want to give aetheas reason to think Claxter didn't want to be around him. He simply walked outside the room, and stretched a bit, then checked on what simulation Eleric and Efaen were doing in the next room. He accessed a screen that mentioned it was occupied, and told him they were doing a flight simulation.

That sent mental alarm bells buzzing in his head. Had Efaen asked to learn how to fly a fighter to make her possible escape attempt easier? Obviously if she just jumped in a docked fighter, the bridge wouldn't open the hatch without good reason, but if she was going out as a training session, it would be more possible for her to hit Z-Space before anyone realizes what she's doing.

Bursting in the room and scolding her was about the worst way to handle this. He had to think of something else. He decided he'd just talk with Eleric about it. <Warrior Eleric, this is Command Warrior Claxter. I need to see you in the Dome for a moment.> He said in his best, if a bit unpracticed, authoritative tone. He didn't make it a habit of verbalizing his rank, but he needed Eleric to listen to him, and as a gentle reminder that Claxter was a superior officer.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Eleric smiles again, watching Efaen familiarize herself with the fighter.  What could be better than teaching a girl how to fly?  It was the perfect combination.

His enjoyable reverie is broken up by the sound of a thought-speech voice being transmitted through the simulation-room's sonic emitters.  He recognizes Claxter's tone just as the other male identifies himself.  He frowns in annoyance...Efaen had just begun to display some tentative signs of rapport with him, and Claxter's interruption seems likely to spoil it.

Nettle him as it did, Claxter outranked him...it wouldn't do any good to be insubordinate, that would merely function to highlight Eleric's own lesser rank in front of Efaen.  <Please excuse me...just familiarize yourself with the controls and maybe fly around a bit...I need to speak with Claxter for a moment.>

The simulation phases him out of Efaen's environment and he exits the deck, standing eye-to-eye with Claxter, their heights almost identical.  The simulator door closes behind him.  <You wanted to see me, Command Warrior?>  Eleric enunciates the "Command" portion of Claxter's title.  Not precisely disrespectful, but very close to it.  Technically Claxter had said he wanted to speak with Eleric in the Dome...a conversation here in the hallway would give some of the initiative back to Eleric.

[Chad32]

Eleric seemed a bit annoyed, and didn't come all the way out. It made Claxter wonder if he should have simply asked, but that was often the thought that came to him when he tried using authority. At least he was here.

<<I'm not sure why you decided to give Efaen instructions on how to fly a fighter, and I suppose any excuse for her to spend extended time in her natural form is a good thing, but if you plan on letting her use a real ship, I want you to deactivate the Z-Space drive and take all but one power cell out of the craft before she leaves the docking bay. Also I don't want you to tell her I think she'll use this to help her fly off on us. She may just want to learn to fly, which is pretty crucial in space.>> He said, as unlikely as the latter guess was.

<<Also if you're going to be in the same craft, and in tight quarters with her, I'd better not hear of any unauthorized physical contact.>> He was afraid the tone of of his last sentence may have sounded more like an overprotective boyfriend or brother than a superior officer, but hopefully that was just him.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

<Maybe I'll try that simulation again next time!> Aetheas says enthusiastically. <Maybe I'll see if the difficulty setting goes any higher!>

Aetheas sighs at Claxter's 'order' that he not seclude himself. He's not sure what, exactly, Claxter thinks there is to be gained by interacting with the idiots that make up most of the crew. Though it might make a nice change of pace. As the only aristh aboard, the only tasks assigned to him are low-priority, and he has no desire to do any of them now, not while he's in a good mood.

<Yes, Command Warrior,> he says. Even to him, it comes across less as more childish than he'd intended.

He trots a short way down the corridor, but stops and turns a stalk eye to watch as Claxter speaks to Eleric.